Tattoos
by pinksnowboots
Summary: FE7 AU. Rath is a tattoo artist in NYC and Wil becomes a regular visitor as he brings all of his friends into the shop  which may or may not have to do with just how attractive Rath is...  RathWil with random others  LegaultHeath, MattGuy, etc  mentioned.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! This is another kinda strange fill from the FE Kink Meme. It's not finished yet, but I'm working on it, I promise. This one is an AU RathWil with various other pairings mentions. Um, and I think that's about all I have to say. I hope yall like it, and if you do, please please review! It makes me happy and want to keep updating my stories. And check out the kink meme bc it's pretty cool.

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><p>As a tattoo artist, Rath had to deal with a lot of crazy people. The thing was, it was usually pretty easy to spot them. Like the one guy with long dark hair and what Rath hoped was a fake sword who came in every couple of weeks to get another drop of blood tattooed on his arm. From the man's frenzied mutterings, Rath had gathered that it was a kill count. But the man paid well and had a sword that may or may not be real, so Rath didn't ask questions. Then there was the couple who spent the whole time bickering and ended up leaving without a tattoo. The one with the long, almost purple hair, kept making lewd jokes about where the other, a tall man with spiky green hair with one white stripe in it, could put his lance until he was forcefully dragged out of the shop.<p>

But the two who walked into his shop that day looked completely normal. The girl was probably in her mid-20s (although the pigtails she wore made her look younger) and the man who was with her, well, he was normal. That was all that Rath could think of to describe him. Average height, messy brown hair, plain clothes. He was a fairly attractive man, but the only unique thing about him was his distinct lack of any defining characteristic. At least that was Rath's first impression. When the pair entered his shop, he realized that the man did have a unique feature: his mouth. He was constantly talking to his companion, smiling as he paused to catch his breath or let her get a word in. But his mouth barely ever stopped, even when he approached Rath.

"Hi Rath!"

Rath gave him a strange look at the man knowing his name, but didn't speak. The man looked slightly cowed at Rath's stare, which was decidedly intense.

"Heh. i know your name because it's on your nametag! Sorry that I didn't mention that because I probably creeped you out a little. My name is Wil, but only with one L, so that kinda makes it weird. But not as weird as Rath. But I mean weird in a good way! More like unique! Or interesting! Or..."

The man...Wil would have kept talking, but the girl put a hand on his arm and gave him a kind look. Rath had a feeling that they'd been through this fairly often. Wil looked abashed for a second, but then his face lit up and he became animated again.

"Sorry Rath! I tend to ramble sometimes. I guess you can tell. That's what Rebecca tells me. Oh, sorry, this is Rebecca! We're here to get here ears pierced. Anyway, I should probably let her talk now. Heh."

The girl-Rebecca-gave him a fond look and began to talk. She was not nearly as animated as Wil and much more subdued.

"Yes, I'm here to get my ears pierced. Just one piercing on each earlobe, that's all. I'm not very edgy, but my boyfriend likes earrings."

Rebecca stopped and blushed a little. Rath realized that he was expected to reply. Quite honestly, Wil's enthusiasm had temporarily stunned him.

"Right. Ok, come this way."

As he led them back to the piercing station, he felt that it was his duty to make small talk. This was never Rath's strong suit, and he usually adopted a policy of silence when he worked. But for some reason, he decided to speak to these two.

"So..is Wil your boyfriend?"

Although the question was addressed to Rebecca, Rath was looking at Wil and it was the cheerful man who answered, laughing.

"Haha! No, her boyfriend's name is Lowen and he's training to be a policeman, which is why I'm here instead. I'm a childhood friend, so Rebecca's kind of like my sister. Besides, I'm gay, so I couldn't be with her anyway."

Wil would have continued, but Rebecca elbowed him, less gently this time, and Wil turned red, suddenly realizing what he had said.

"Oh! Oversharing! Sorry..."

Rath just shrugged and went about cleaning the piercing gun. He marked spots on Rebecca's ears as guidelines and positioned the gun.

"Ok. This might hurt, but just a little bit."

When he pulled the trigger, Rebecca flinched slightly and grabbed Wil's arm, but recovered quickly. She reacted even less to the second ear and soon was admiring her silver studs in the mirror.

"Thank you so much! Do I pay here?"

Rath led her to the cash register and took her money. The pair turned to leave, but Wil turned around to say one more thing.

"I'm sorry if I seemed really strange and forward. I promise I'm not this weird usually. Well, I guess I am, but I hope I didn't scare you and anyway...it was nice to meet you Rath."

The way that the man said this was so honest and sincere that Rath actually allowed a small smile, which Wil returned much brighter.

"So, maybe I'll see you later?"

Wil called out as he and Rebecca left. For some reason, Rath actually hoped that he would see the earnest man again.


	2. Chapter 2

Second part of the fill. I know they're really short chapters, and that's because Livejournal has character limits on replies. So I'm compiling every few parts into a chapter. There's a little more already written, but I'm going to wait until I have another chapter's worth. Also, I want to see if anyone actually reads this (hint-reviews will make me upload this faster!).

No warnings really, but I do have a tendency to curse in fics and not realize it. And Wil rambles A LOT. He's pretty much my train of thought personified. :)

Please enjoy (and review!)

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><p>The rest of the week went by quickly and uneventfully for Rath. He had been a tattoo artist for so long that work was no longer difficult or even interesting, and he could practically do his job on autopilot. But about a week and a half after he first encountered Wil, he saw the very same man walk into his shop talking the ear off of another woman. When he saw Rath, he gave a blinding smile.<p>

"Hey Rath! This is Lyn, another friend of mine. She's wanted to get a tattoo, so I told her that I knew a place where Rebecca got her ears pierced and here we are! She's Sacaean, which is kind of rare."

"I'm Sacaean."

Rath's reply only phased Wil for a second before he was talking away again.

"Well, then I guess you know what that is! Well, anyway, she's here to get a tattoo. So I should probably let her talk now."

Rath turned to look at Wil's new companion (not girlfriend, he had said he was gay). She was taller than Rebecca, and slender, with dark hair which almost looked blue in a long plait down her back. Her features were slightly sharp but proud, and very much Sacaean. Rath observed rather objectively that she was rather beautiful, or would appear so to straight males. As is, he was able to recognize her appeal without actually feeling attraction.

"What do you want?"

Rath was short and to the point. His manner had a way of unnerving people sometimes, but Lyn seemed rather unphased.

"I'd like a feather on my foot. I have a picture. A friend drew it for me."

The picture was delicate and tasteful rather than the garish designs Rath usually was given. Rath led them both to the back of the shop and began to prepare his supplies. As he did, Wil chattered away to Rath.

"I hope you don't mind that I'm back. I thought your shop seemed neat so I decided to recommend it. And when Lyn came back I wanted to be moral support and see if you did tattoos too. But it kind of looks like you do everything around here! That's really neat. So I guess you're kind of like an artist! Do you mind having me here?"

Wil slowed down his train of thought for a second to look for confirmation, which Rath gave with a slight incline of his head. Wil gave another thousand watt smile and launched back into his tirade. Rath listened absentmindedly, paying more attention to the cadence and pitch of Wil's voice than the actual words that he said. When he actually brought out the needle, Wil fell silent and began to watch the procedure raptly. Lyn was stoic and didn't show any signs of needing moral support, or even showing pain. Rath became so focused as he worked that he temporarily forgot the vivacious man who was watching them rather intently.

Wil was watching Lyn and her tattoo, but he ended up simply watching Rath work. The man was attractive in a different kind of way. He also looked proud, with sharp features, but he was more withdrawn than Lyn. He had a quiet presence about him despite the intense look that he seemed to wear whenever he focused on something. His hair was long and brown (and Wil could swear he saw flecks of green), but mainly covered by a bandanna. He had two gold hoops in his left ear, and wore loose fitting clothes in neutral colors. As he worked, his face lost some of its normal apathy and became intensely focused on the task at hand as his hands worked to draw the intricate design. Rath was intensely caught up in his work, and Wil was intensely caught up in staring at Rath. So much so that he was actually quiet, a rare feat. While Rath finished the tattoo and collected Lyn's money, Wil remained spellbound and at a loss for words. He barely managed to call out "See you later!" as they left, hoping to see the small smile that he managed to get from Rath last time.

Again, Rath couldn't help but crack a small smile.

….

As they walked out of the shop and back to the subway, Lyn began to interrogate Wil.

"You liked him."

Wil blushed and sputtered. His sexual orientation was not a secret, and being that they lived in New York City, not even that much of an oddity. But although Wil said with surety that he was attracted to guys, he never seemed to find a man who could hold his attention for more than a week or so.

"Well, maybe he's kind of attractive, in a strong and silent kind of way. And maybe I think that he's mysterious and that only adds to the attraction. And maybe I really like his smile and want to see it again. And maybe you should not tell the others, on pain of death."

Lyn laughed as Wil blushed.

"It's ok, Wil. Although I never saw him smile. That must have just been for you."


	3. Chapter 3

As the weeks went by, Wil became a fixture at Rath's shop, as well as a regular customer. Although Wil never got a tattoo or a piercing himself, he seemed to bring an endless stream of people who did. These people varied from decidedly straight men to gay couples to extremely annoying girls with pink hair who talked even more than Wil. Wil always talked his ear off, sometimes ignoring the person he had brought, while always subtly working the fact that his friends all had significant others into the conversation in a way that was not quite accidental.

For example, when Wil brought in two rather eccentric men, he introduced them as "My friend Matthew and his boyfriend Guy," putting just a hint of emphasis on the word boyfriend.  
>The one with the long green braid blushed and protested, but the man with the messy brown hair and red cape casually slung an arm around him, effectively shutting him up. Wil talked to him the whole time as Rath tattooed "Property of Matthew" in henna across Guy's lower back, while Matthew convinced him that it was, in fact, a permanent tattoo. The smaller man's mumblings about "damned favors" and subsequent freakout at the finished product was enough to make even Rath laugh. Although it could just have been because Wil asked him to help with the prank, and Wil's face lit up so much when he smiled. When Guy had been told that the tattoo was, in fact temporary, he attempted to kill his not-boyfriend with a tattoo gun, until Matthew subdued him very nicely with a peck on the lips, leaving Guy stuttering and red as Matthew waved goodbye to Wil and Rath and led him out of the shop.<p>

Wil stayed and talked to Rath for another hour until another customer came in.

Through days like this, Rath learned about Wil's eccentric lifestyle and friends. Wil was in a modern art collective led by a man named Eliwood, who had come in with Wil to tattoo a graceful dragon on his shoulder. He learned that Wil created his artworks by shotting arrows loaded with paint onto canvas, and despite the fact that "Eliwood's Elite" had gained a cult following in Greenwich Village, Wil thought of himself as just another artist.  
>"I just think of myself as one more struggling artist, but I like it that way. I'm like, normal artist #3." Wil had told him with his trademark cheerful smile.<br>Rath stared at him, dumbfounded. Then he did something that he hadn't done since the Matthew/Guy incident-Rath laughed.  
>"Rath, are you ok? Because I don't see you laugh often. You smile more now than you did when I met you, so that's ok. But I didn't think I said anything funny."<br>Rath was shaking with gentle laughter, the equivalent of cackling maniacally for the quiet man. "Normal...artist...number 3? (Laugh) Wil, you're...strange."  
>Wil was sure the apocalypse was coming, because for once, he was the one rendered speechless. He finally managed one sentence. "Is that...a bad thing?"<br>Rath looked at him like he was crazy, but there was fondness in the look.  
>"No. Not a bad thing at all."<p> 


	4. NOTE

Alright. First off, this is not another chapter. Which, considering that I've hardly gotten any response to this story, should not disappoint to many people. If you, for some inexplicable reason, did want to read more of my random AU stuff, this note is aimed for you.

Anyway, here's the deal. I know some people have me or this story on alert. If you have read part of this story and want it to get finished, please drop me a review and tell me so. It doesn't have to be long, just a "Hey, I like this pairing, so please write one more chapter." or even a "Hey, your story sucks but I want man-kissing." I don't care. And if I get a substantial response (pretty much meaning more than one person), I'll make it my goal to finish this soon. Plus, I'm so review starved that if you review, I'll probably message you back with tears of joy declaring how much I love you. So even if you hate my writing, but like having undying gratitude proclaimed to you, I'm ok with that. If no one expresses interest, then I will leave it until I feel moved to finish it, because obviously I'm just writing for my own health. But first I'll go to the emo corner and cry. Just kidding...sort of.

Yes, I know this is a desperate plea for an ego boost. Yes, I am a shallow review whore. But I really liked this story, and if you liked it at all and want to see it finished, please tell me and give me the push that I need to stop wallowing and start wrapping up loose ends.

Thanks for putting up with me.

-Pinksnowboots

Fanfic "Author" and Insecure Review Whore Extraordinaire


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